In 2024, the United Nations offices will organize Holocaust remembrance and educational activities under the theme “Recognizing the Extraordinary Courage of Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust”. Holocaust remembrance and educational events included solemn commemoration ceremonies, exhibits, film screenings and educational briefings.
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Europe and the CIS
Paris, France
Commemoration ceremony and concert reviving the music from the Holocaust
Thursday 25 January 2024, 6.30 p.m. - 7.45 p.m. (Paris time)
To commemorate the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, UNESCO will host a world premiere of a special concert reviving music from the concentration camps and ghettos. Italian composer and conductor Francesco Lotoro spent years recovering compositions created and played under Nazi persecution - a powerful reminder of the endurance of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable horrors. At the concert, his orchestra will bring these melodies to life on stage for the first time since World War II, coupled with survivors’ testimonies.
Led by the UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, the ceremony will also include traditional Jewish prayers in the memory of Holocaust victims, including a recital of Kol Nidre (All Vows) on a violin rescued from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
"Blue skies": exhibition reflecting on collective trauma and remembrance
From 23 January to 9 February 2024, Monday to Friday from 9 to 5.30 p.m. (Paris time), UNESCO Paris, Pas Perdus Hall
The multimedia exhibition “Blue Skies” by Belgian artist Anton Kusters is a striking reflection on the memory of the Holocaust and collective trauma. Kusters spent 6 years photographing empty skies above Nazi concentration and extermination camps across Europe - locations where millions were killed, yet little physical evidence remains today.
Each of his 1078 blue sky images, stamped with GPS coordinates and victim numbers and accompanied by a video installation and a sound piece by Ruben Samama, explores how we witness, process pain and choose to remember almost 80 years after the liberation of the last camp.
The Blue Skies Project is curated by Monica Allende.